New report on innovations for coral finance

The 2018 International Year of the Reef is an opportunity for the world’s media to highlight the many threats faced by coral ecosystems and the need to protect them. One of the main challenges faced when implementing coral conservation activities is the financing of it; the funds currently needed to achieve effective and lasting conservation greatly exceed the available funds, generating a substantial financing gap.

To explore ways of reducing this gap, the International Coral Reef Initiative releases a study of opportunities offered by innovative financing mechanisms for coral conservation. The seven most promising notions are presented. The report prompts for more integrated models, notably using a business-model approach. It introduces four example business models addressing specific coral-context challenges and how they can be used by local conservationists and decision-makers as a tool to make coral conservation sustainable. These examples are paving the way for dozens of customised coral business models still to be designed. We hope this first report will help renew the approach of coral finance.